“ I’ve never known a person who wasn’t interested in language.” -Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct

1. Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Presented by Amy Benjamin Today’s visuals are available at www.amybenjamin.com Today’s Agenda: Introduction Teaching Parts of Speech (and using what students know about parts of speech to enrich the writers’ conversation) Teaching Sentence Completeness Sentence Renovation Code-switching: Informal or Formal Engish ….Other issues of interest “ I’ve never known a person who wasn’t interested in language.” -Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct

2. I teaching grammar. I never “really” learned it. Shouldn’t they already have had this in the lower grades? Do kids really have to learn all these terms? I loved it! I thought diagramming sentences was fun! There’s no interesting way to teach grammar. It’s just drill and workbook. M

4. Prescriptivists Descriptivists

5. Students struggle with going from speech to writing, and then from informal to formal style.

6. Seeing Grammar With New Eyes Visuals Manipulatives Role-Play Problem-solving Wordplay Inquiry Respect for Language Change and Variation Inductive Reasoning High Level of Student Engagement

7. I. II. Cesar Chavez helped the farm workers. He advocated for them. He did not encourage violence. He led a boycott instead of violence. The boycott was an effective method of resistance. (30) Cesar Chavez helped the farm workers, and he advocated for them. He did not encourage violence. He led a boycott instead of violence, and the boycott was an effective method of resistance. (32) III. Cesar Chavez, advocate for farm workers, helped them not by encouraging violence, but by leading a boycott, an effective method of resistance. (22) Cesar Chavez, advocate for farm workers, helped them not by encouraging violence, but by leading a boycott. The boycott was an effective method of resistance. (25) Grammar is the most significant determiner of sophisticated style.

8. Grammar is a system of making sentences out of parts. The parts have to match (agree): Number (singular or plural) Gender (masculine, feminine, neutral) Case (subjective, objective, possessive) Tense (past, present, future; progressive perfect) The two main parts of language are nouns and verbs. Everything else either modifies nouns or verbs or joins words, phrases, and clauses.

9. Point of intervention for substantial language improvement Point of intervention for surface error correction GRAMMAR IN THE HEART OF THE WRITING PROCESS: Sharpen your nouns Minimize your modifiers Replace BE verbs and weak verbs with strong action verbs Achieve parallel structure Combine sentences: create complex sentences use appositives use absolutes Expand and shrink noun phrases. Turn clauses into modifying phrases. Decide where to place modifiers for desired effect. Pre-writing experience: (non-sentence form) Drafting Revising Publication Editing

10. Powerful you have become. The dark side I see in you. Grave danger you are in. Impatient you are. Not if anything to say about it I have. The boy you trained, gone he is. When 900 years I reach, look as good as you I will not. Lost a planet Master Obi-Wan has. Inversions: The subject-verb link is presented last.

11. Noun: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of a NOUN. Your NOUN may be used to fit into the following frame: The____________. Your NOUN is used to name people, places, things, ideas, qualities, states of mind, and all kinds of other things that need naming. Your NOUN may be easily converted into an adjective. All you have to do is put another NOUN after it and have it make sense. (COW pasture, for example). Your NOUN may be the kind of NOUN that can be made plural. Only NOUNS may be made plural. Your NOUN may be able to be made possessive by adding ‘s. Only NOUNS may be made possessive. When you make your NOUN possessive, it becomes an adjective. You may add all kinds of modifiers before and after your NOUN. You may replace your NOUN along with its modifiers with a pronoun. Feel free to use your NOUN as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object complement, object of a preposition, appositive, or predicate noun Your noun may be called a nominal when we consider it together with its modifiers.

12. My Noun Palette Proper Nouns: Concrete Nouns: Abstract Nouns: -tion,-sion,-ism,-ence, -ance, -ness, -ment, -itude

13. Adjective: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of an ADJECTIVE. Your ADJECTIVE may be used to fit into the following frame: The______________truck. Or The truck was very_________. Your ADJECTIVE likes to answer the question What kind? If your ADJECTIVE doesn’t fit into either of these frames, maybe it is the kind of ADJECTIVE that answers the questions Which one? or How many? Your ADJECTIVE may be capable of using the suffixes –er in the comparative form and –est in the superlative form. (If your ADJECTIVE doesn’t like these suffixes, just use more and most to accomplish comparison or superiority.) Your ADJECTIVE reports to your NOUN, and your NOUN can easily become an ADJECTIVE to another NOUN. Often, groups of words decide to get together and do ADJECTIVE-like work. We call such groups of words ADJECTIVALS, and they may be phrases or clauses that operate just like ADJECTIVES, answering those questions that ADJECTIVES answer.

14. Verb: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of a VERB. Your VERB may be used to fit into the following frame: To______________. Your VERB is the part of the sentence that is capable of turning the sentence into a negative. It is also the part of the sentence that changes when you add yesterday or right now. (If your sentence does not change when you add yesterday to it, then your sentence is in the past tense. If your sentence does not change when you add right now to it, then it is in the present tense.) Your VERB may be an action verb or a linking verb. Action verbs may take direct objects and are modified by adverbs. Linking verbs take predicate nouns and predicate adjectives. You can easily find a list of linking verbs. Your VERB may take auxiliaries (forms of have, be) and modal auxiliaries (could, should, would, can, will, shall, may, might, must). Your VERB sometimes uses a form of the word do to create a sentence, to emphasize, to negate, or to stand in for itself, as in: Do you think so? Yes, I do.

15. Adverb: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of an ADVERB. Your adverb may be used to tell where, when, or how. Adverbs that tell where may be replaced by the word there: We drove south for two miles. (We drove there for two miles.) Adverbs that tell when may be replaced by the word then: We ate lunch late. (We ate lunch then.) Adverbs that tell how often end in –ly and may be replaced by the words like this: He joined the team eagerly. (He joined the team like this.) You may move your adverbs around in the sentence. If you do, you’ll want to set them off with commas. Often, groups of words decide to get together to do ADVERB-like work, and when they do, we call these groups of words ADVERBIALS. ADVERBIALS may be phrases or clauses that do the work that adverbs do.

16. Two Categories of Words in English Form Class Words: Noun Verb Adjective Adverb Structure Class Words: Prepositions Conjunctions Determiners (aka articles: a, an, the) Intensifers Pronouns Interjections

17. Jabberwocky ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

18. Morphology Chart It’s easier to understand parts of speech than you think. Simply use the cues above.. Not all words follow the same morphology. It’s interesting to see how words morph into different forms.

19. This “Morphology Kit” is a great way to expand vocabulary because most of the words created by these suffixes express abstract ideas. Morphology Kit Adverb-making suffix: -ly 5

20. Prepositions

21. Six Reasons for Teaching Prepositions: 1. Prepositions add time and place detail to sentences 2. Students can vary their sentence structure and set the stage for a sentence by beginning some sentences with prepositions. 3. Students can add power to their writing by ending paragraphs with a prepositional phrase. (Conversely: Students can avoid ending sentences with prepositions so that their sentences are not weak or too informal.) 4. Students can avoid subject-verb agreement errors by recognizing prepositional phrases that intervene between the subject and the verb, as in “A box of matches (is, are) on the kitchen table.” 5. Students can create parallel structure by repeating prepositional phrases deliberately. 6. Students can select the appropriate pronoun case as the object of a preposition. (between you and me; for Joe and me)

22. Sentence Patterns S-V: Subject-Verb: This pattern uses an intransitive verb. Intransitive verbs take no direct object. S-V-O: Subject-Verb-Object: This pattern uses a transitive verb. Transitive verbs take direct objects. (Direct objects answer “Who?” or “What?” They are used with action verbs only. S-V-SC: Subject-Verb-Subject Complement: This pattern uses a linking verb. Linking verbs require some kind of subject complement to finish the thought. Subject complements can be nouns, adjectives, or prepositional phrases.

23. bouncy shy friendly shyly vivaciously protectively protective recklessly hungry cautiously jovially playfully playful silly adventurously curiously adventurous curious Linking verbs tell the nature of things. Linking verbs: BE, + sense verbs: look, sound, smell, feel; seem verbs: seem appear, become, grow Action verbs are modified by adverbs. Pepper is… Pepper behaves… Pepper acts… Pepper looks..l Pepper seems… Pepper became… Linking verbs are completed by adjectives.

25. Pattern 1, subject + verb Rocks explode. Rocks explode.

26. Pattern 1, subject + verb Ghosts walk. Fish swim. Penguins waddle. Balloons pop. The elephant swaggered. The ice cream melted. The strawberry ice cream cone with the cherry on top of it melted.

27. The verb in a Pattern 1 sentence does not have to be the last word of the sentence. Happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow. bluebirds fly little beyond Happy rainbow. the

28. Pattern 2:Subject + Verb + Direct Object Everybody loves Raymond. Everybody Raymond. loves A DIRECT OBJECT answers the question “Who?” or “What?” to the verb. DIRECT OBJECTS apply only to action verbs (not linking verbs).

29. Pattern 2:Subject + Verb + Direct Object We ate pepperoni pizza. We pizza. ate pepperoni Transitive verbs are verbs that take direct objects. DIRECT OBJECTS apply only to action verbs (not linking verbs).

30. Pattern 3:Subject + Verb + Subject Complement Elephants are mammals. Elephants are mammals. When the subject complement is a noun (or pronoun), it RENAMES the subject and the sentence is reversible. (Mammals are elephants.) We use the “back-slash” to indicate that the subject complement refers back to the subject.

31. meat lions eat are lions carnivores

32. Pattern 3:Subject + Verb + Subject Complement Elephants are pretty . Elephants are pretty. A few other verbs sometimes get treated like linking verbs: look, feel, sound, smell, taste, become, grow, appear

33. Sentence Workout: Step One: Explain what is happening in your picture. Step Two: Now, experiment with many different ways to write your sentence: Ex: Begin with There is/ There are____________. Don’t begin with the or a. Write a yes/no question. Write a Who? or What? or When? or Where? or Why? question. Write a sentence that has an -ING word. Write a sentence that does not use IS or ARE or WAS or WERE. Write a sentence that uses BECAUSE in the middle. Reverse that sentence to have BECAUSE as the first word. Write a sentence that use SO in the middle. Write a sentence that needs two commas. Write a sentence for each of the three sentence patterns: Subject + Verb. Subject + Verb + Object. Subject + Verb + Complement.

34. Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone: The “Guess What!” test How it works: Say “Guess What!” in front of a group of words. If the group of words tells you “guess what!” then you have a complete sentence!

35. Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone: Test Two: The “They believed that…” test How it works: Say “They believed that…” in front of a group of words. If the group of words makes sense when you say “They believed that…” in front of it, then you have a complete sentence!

36. Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone: Test Three: The “Yes/No Question” test How it works: Can you turn your group of words into a question that can be answered with YES or NO? If you can, then your group of words is a complete sentence.

37. Phrase, Clause, Sentence A phrase is two or more words that go together (without being a sentence). There are noun phrases and verb phrases. Once we have both a noun and a verb, then we have a clause. A clause is a group of words that may or may not be a complete sentence. If a clause can stand alone as a sentence, then we call it an independent clause. (If a clause cannot stand alone as a sentence, then we call it a subordinate clause.

38. Why run-ons? Run-ons result from the improper joining of independent clauses. When independent clauses are joined by JUST a COMMA, we call that kind of run-on a COMMA SPLICE. To fix a comma splice, just add and, but, so, or a semicolon. How do you know if you have a run-on? Try your favorite sentence test. Listen carefully for the point at which the information in each independent clause ends. A clause is a group of words that may or may not be a complete sentence. If a clause can be a complete sentence, then we call it an independent clause.

39. The Sentence-Making Kit Fold a 5 x 8 index card in half, width-wise: They believed that… Guess What! Yes/no question 2. 3. 1.

40. The Sentence-Making Kit On the inside of the card: AAAWWUBBIS: although, as, after while, when until because, before if, since If a sentence begins with any of these words, it must have two parts. Place a comma between the two parts if one of these words begins the sentence. These words, plus the comma, may join two sentences. Writers sometimes begin sentences with these words if they are doing so for emphasis. ,and ,but ,so Use as many ACTION VERBS as possible. Flip the switch into formal English: a lot = a great many or a great deal gonna= going to wanna= want to hafta= have to get,got = become, became, receive received, obtain, obtained gotta: must These words will help you give detail in your sentences: Try beginning some of your sentences with these words: Use words and groups of words that answer the ADVERB QUESTIONS: When? Where? Why? How? To what extent? How often? IN FOR ON WITH AT

41. The Sentence-Making Kit On the back of the card: Substitutions for homophones and spelling problems: their = his there = here they’re = they are your = his you’re = you are its = his it’s = it is; it has woman = man women = men I before E except after C Or when sounded as A As in neighbor or sleigh

42. Formal Informal

43. Informal and Formal English Set your dial to the level of formality that is appropriate for your audience and purpose.

44. Informal and Formal English Set your dial to the level of formality that is appropriate for your audience and purpose.

45. Informal and Formal Handout: Page 11 briefcase dress shoes sit-down restaurant football on the team lunch cooking, baking, roasting backpack flip-flops McDonald’s frisbee on the lawn snack zapping/nuking

46. A Pronoun Poem As Mom and I walked homewardly, A puppy followed her and me. Both she and I were quick to see He had adopted Mom and me. At home we showed him where to pee And where the doggy bed would be. Then Mom and I made lunch for three, A feast for him and Mom and me. from Woe is I Jr: The Younger Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English. by Patricia T. O’Connor and Tom Stiglich.

47. Use of Modifiers • Why should we teach modifiers? • How should we teach modifiers?

48. the lovely princess the frog the lazy frog the princess the lovely princess of Romania the laziest frog in the bayou a charming, handsome prince a handsome prince. a charming, handsome prince who had no outstanding debts. kissed When , he turned into Expansion 1: Add pre-noun modifiers Expansion 2: Add post-noun modifiers

49. EXPANSION OPPORTUNITY SUBJECT COMPLEMENT SUBJECT VERB to know the truth. seemed Her mother from Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson, 1994.

50. EXPANSION OPPORTUNITY SUBJECT COMPLEMENT SUBJECT VERB to know the truth.. Her mother seemed ,although Hatsue didn’t know it, Subordinate Clause from Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson, 1994.